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We all love monsters, but who among us has the tenacity to raise our own? You may think you don’t have enough room in your city dwelling to properly house a mythical grotesquerie, but there are some breeds of dragons, basilisks and night gaunts that can and do thrive in such a home. Here are four easy steps to lead on the path of raising a nightmarish hellbeast, right in your own living room!

Edward Estlin Cummings (ee to his friends) has been heralded as one of the most innovative poets of his time. He toyed with poetic form and noodled about with language to create a poetic style that stands as unique and compelling. What might he think of Twitter, which regularly shifts and twists language much the same way ol’ ee did? The results are surprisingly easy to imagine.

In honor of World Mental Health Day, we asked Quirk authors what they do to practice self-care. Need some inspiration? Read on.

All month long, we’re celebrating the latest addition to the Sam Maggs canon: Girl Squads: 20 Female Friendships That Changed History. It’s an incredible exploration of women throughout history – and we’re not just saying that because we published it. Did you know about BFF pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read, who could plunder with the best of them? How about First Nations twin sisters Sharon and Shirley Firth, who went on to become Olympic skiers? Or how about the Edinburgh Seven, friends who fought to become the first women to be admitted to medical school in the United Kingdom? We told you this book was incredible.

Today, we’re focusing on something a little more now: your own girl squad. Ever find yourself turning to the usual (tired) tropes – brunch or happy hour? Quirk Books to the rescue! We’re here to shake up your calendar and help you make some wonderful memories. Girl squads, unite!

Lest you begin to think Taylor Swift invented the notion of girl squads, you should know that girl squads have been around since the beginning of time. I’m no paleontologist, but I bet even girl dinosaurs would band together with other girl dinosaurs because even they knew the importance of female friendship. Groups of girlfriends taking on the world is nothing new, but it does feel like they had a big resurgence in pop culture during the 1980s and 1990s. Here are a few of our favorites from that time. By the time you get through this list, you’ll be calling your best girls up for an impromptu hang. Girl Power, always and forever. But especially in the '80s and '90s.

Dating in the ‘80s and ‘90s was a simpler time. No Tinder, no Snapchat, no googling or ghosting. Instead, this was a time of phone calls (and answering machines), dinner dates, high school party hookups, and meeting the same guys over and over again. Of course, we don’t mean meeting the literal same person over and over (unless you spent these decades in a particularly small town), but meeting that same trope time and time again. He might have frosted his tips this time, he might have ditched that shell necklace, he might have chosen a suit in eye-wateringly bright colors, but he’s the same underneath it all…and whether it was the Boy Next Door or the Party Virgin, if you were dating in these decades, we guarantee you’ve gone out with at least one of these guys.